And when any of her subjects have
proved obstreperous and disobedient, and stubborn in their resistance
to her orders, she has invariably turned them out of her fold, so that
they should not infect and contaminate the good and the loyal. It was
in this sense that St. Paul, the inspired Apostle, in the very first
century of the Christian era, instructed Titus to construe and
administer the law committed to his charge. After warning Titus that
there are "many vain talkers and deceivers," St. Paul commands him "to
rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in faith". He adds
further: "These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke, _with all
authority_". But this was not all. He was not only to decide who were
the "vain talkers and deceivers". Nor was he simply "to exhort and
rebuke them sharply, and with all authority," that they might become
"sound in the faith," but if they persisted after the first and second
admonition, he was also to reject them, and thrust them out of the
Church, as heretics. "Reject a heretic, after the first and second
admonition" (Tit. iii. 10). Now Titus was neither an Apostle nor a
Pope, but a simple Bishop.
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